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Red wolf
The red wolf (Canis rufus4 or Canis lupus rufus),5 also known as the Florida black wolf or Mississippi Valley wolf,6 is a canid of unresolved taxonomic identity native to the eastern United States.78 It is generally, morphologically, an intermediate between the coyote and gray wolf, and is of a reddish, tawny color.910 The Red Wolf is a federally listed endangered species of the United States, and is protected by law.11 It has been listed by IUCN as a critically endangered species since 1996.1 It is considered the rarest species of wolf and is one of the five most endangered species of wolf in the world.12 Red wolves may have been the first New World wolf species encountered by European colonists, and were originally distributed throughout the eastern United States from the Atlantic Ocean to central Texas, and in the north from the Ohio River Valley, northern Pennsylvania and southern New York south to the Gulf of Mexico.8 The red wolf was nearly driven to extinction by the mid-1900s due to aggressive predator-control programs, habitat destruction, and extensive hybridization with coyotes. By the late 1960s, it occurred in small numbers in the Gulf Coast of western Louisiana and eastern Texas. Fourteen of these survivors were selected to be the founders of a captive-bred population, which was established in the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium between 1974 and 1980. After a successful experimental relocation to Bulls Island off the coast of South Carolina in 1978, the red wolf was declared extinct in the wild in 1980 to proceed with restoration efforts. In 1987, the captive animals were released into the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge on the Albemarle Peninsula in North Carolina, with a second release, since reversed, taking place two years later in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.13Of 63 red wolves released from 1987–1994,14 the population rose to as many as 100–120 individuals in 2012, but has declined to 50–75 individuals in 2015.15 The red wolf's taxonomic status has been a subject of controversy. A 2011 genetic study indicated that it may be a hybrid species between gray wolves and coyotes.16 Re-analysis of this study, coupled with a broader contextual analysis including behavioral, morphological and additional genetic information, led to arguments that the red wolf is an independent species, but has suffered from significant introgression of coyote genes likely due to decimation of red wolf packs and fragmentation of their social structure due to hunting.17 A comprehensive review in October 2012 concluded that the red wolf is a distinct species which diverged from the coyote alongside the closely related eastern wolf 150,000–300,000 years ago,4 Although this 2012 review was not universally accepted among relevant authorities,18 two subsequent reviews of updated research in 2013 and 2014 suggest that the red wolf was once a species distinct from the gray wolf and coyote.819 A 2015 genetics study, using the most comprehensive mitochondrial DNA data, Y-chromosome data and genome-wide 127,235 single nucleotide polymorphism data, concluded that "the most parsimonious explanation" is that eastern wolves in Algonquin Provincial Park are "a distinct remnant entity of a historical wolf that most likely existed throughout the eastern United States".20 This view is supported by the idea that the coyote and gray wolf did not historically range into the eastern United States, with current academic debate on red wolf taxonomy shifting to a new question: whether the eastern wolf and red wolf are conspecific (belong to the same species),8 a possibility considered by some researchers.20 In contrast, a 2016 study of 28 sequenced canid genomes concluded that red and eastern wolves have sequences that can be explained as resulting from gray wolf-coyote hybridization.2122 Category:Animals Category:Creatures